Wed 13.7.

Variations upon an electric kettle by Jean-Baptiste Fastrez; photo by Véronique Huyghe

Jean-Baptiste Fastrez, Brynjar Sigurdarson and Emilie Colin Garros are the three young designers who have found themselves thrust into the spotlight after being named the winners at this year’s edition of Design Parade – an international three-day design festival held annually at the Villa Noailles in Hyères which took place earlier this month (1-3.07).

The festival’s jury, this year composed of seven leading design figures: Stefan Diez, Saskia Diez, François Dumas, Lidewij Edelkoort, Marianne Goebl, Didier Krzentowski, Marco Velardi, has awarded the Grand Prix of the ‘Young designers contest’ ex-aqueo to: Jean-Baptiste Fastrez for his ‘Variations upon an electric kettle’ and Brynjar Sigurdarson for ‘Tool Light’ while Emilie Colin Garros has received the Award of the Public for her ‘Tension Collection’ of laser-cut furniture.

From the designer: ‘The fact that a light is a function like any other, brought me into looking at the original typology of tools. In most cases the function of a tool is applied to a stick of wood. Without the stick the tool would be useless. When doing that to a light, or in this case a lampshade, it became kind of a torchlight but a part of the environment of tools. It is something in between a torchlight and a tool, and in a way it can be perceived as the most basic way of making a torchlight.’

Variations upon an electric kettle by Jean-Baptiste Fastrez; photo by Véronique Huyghe

Variations upon an electric kettle by Jean-Baptiste Fastrez; photo by Véronique Huyghe

Variations upon an electric kettle by Jean-Baptiste Fastrez; photo by Véronique Huyghe

From the designer: ‘If industrial objects benefit from the efficiency of mass production, they are often soulless as they are standardized. In opposition to the industrial ideal, an object for all, is a more human and sustainable production: something for everyone. Taking the electric kettle as a testing ground, this project proposes to introduce variations on a purely industrial product. To achieve this, it tries to make serial production and hand-made production coexist within one same object. […] These «variations on a kettle» lead to hybrid objects that are somewhere between mass production and one-off, industry and handicrafts, technical aesthetics and organic forms.’

From the designer: ‘A coffee table, a chair, stools, a bench, shelves, are all offered according to the same manufacturing process. This principle of a rapid and economical construction offers an alternative to stamped sheet metal. A metal sheet is cut out by laser, then folded, in order to grant each object its shape. From the cut out pattern, strips are drawn which become brackets and structure the surface (table top, seat, base). There is no need for any additional materials in the manufacturing of this furniture.’